Welding and carpentry students team up to build heavy-duty trailers to move modular homes

At Highlands College of Montana Tech, sparks are flying as welding students put the finishing touches on two massive steel trailers designed to haul student-built modular homes up to their final destination.

The project highlights hands-on learning and collaboration between Highlands College’s Welding Technology and Construction Technology-Carpentry programs.

“It’s a great project because it lets us work together with carpentry,” Welding Instructor Jim LeProwse said. “Anytime you can do a collaboration project like that, it’s a good thing.”

 

This is the second time LeProwse’s students have built trailers for this purpose. Two years ago welding students built two similar trailers to also haul the 1,400-square foot, 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom modular homes that are built by the Construction Technology-Carpentry program students. Those trailers were used to haul the home from the Highlands College campus to Georgetown Lake.

“They put the last trailers through some heavy-duty stuff, and they held up just fine,” he said with a smile. “I’m pretty pleased with that.”

The new designs incorporate improvements based on lessons learned from that inaugural effort — added reinforcement wings, extra gussets for strength, and longer frames to accommodate future builds.

“We built these trailers about 20 feet longer than what they needed, just in case they decide to do bigger houses down the road,” LeProwse explained.

For the students, the project is more than just a class assignment — it’s a chance to weld, fabricate, and troubleshoot just as they will in industry settings.

“It’s been a mixture of teamwork and using our skills from last year,” said Michael Pavez, a second-year welding student from Riverside, California. “My favorite part is being outside. It feels more like a real-world job experience than just being in a booth — you’ve got different angles, you’re down on the ground, and it feels real.”

Working outdoors, often in chilly fall weather, helps students adapt to the physical realities of their trade.

“If we built it inside the shop, we’d never get it out the door,” LeProwse said. “And in the real world, they’re going to have to work outside in the cold and do stuff like that.”

Each trailer is a complex assembly of steel beams, gussets, and supports, designed entirely by the students based on measurements from the carpentry houses. The class cuts, welds, and fits each piece by hand — even fabricating the hitches and axle shackles themselves.

“The students really take ownership,” he said. “I tell them, ‘This is your job for the day.’ I check in like a boss would, but they’re the ones out there doing the work.”

Once complete, the trailers will remain part of Highlands College’s equipment, ready to haul future student-built homes for years to come.

For LeProwse, seeing his students’ work in action — and their confidence grow with it — is the best reward.

“It’s real rewarding to see the successes the students have here and after they leave,” he said. “They go out, get good jobs, and become valuable employees wherever they end up.”

The Highlands College Construction Technology-Carpentry program is currently offering viewings of and accepting bids for the latest 3-bedroom, 2 bath modular home that students completed in May. For more information, contact Mike Fink at 406-496-3749 or mfink@mtech.edu.